Layered Acrylic Waterscape Painting

Layer acrylic paint to create this waterscape art piece.

That's Clever! : Episode HCLVR-241 -- More Projects »
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Project by Nancy Reyner from Santa Fe, N.M.
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Nancy Reyner has been an artist ever since she was a child. Nancy started out as a painter and an illustrator and veered into puppet making in college. She even ran her own puppet theater in New York City for several years. But when her boyfriend (and future husband) moved to Santa Fe, she gave up puppeteering and her beloved city and followed him to New Mexico, where the exciting artist community inspired her to pick up her paintbrush again.

Materials:

credit card
plaster spatula
palette knife
putty knife
Golden crackle paste (art supply stores)
wood panel primed with white acrylic gesso
ice cube tray
fluid paints: Phthalo Blue (green shade), Transparent Red Iron Oxide, Phthalo Green (yellow shade), and Dioxizine Purple, red, yellow, blue, green, orange, purple, brown, white and black
flat wide paintbrush
spray bottle filled with water
paper towels
hair dryer
various painting tools: brush, sponge, eyedropper and toothbrush
16 oz. Golden self-leveling acrylic gel
3 to 4 drops of Fluid Acrylic Interference Blue (fine)
mixing container
paint stirrer
shells
glitter
stones

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Figure A
Steps:

1. Apply acrylic crackle paste to a sturdy wooden panel that has been pre-primed with white acrylic gesso. Apply the paste from about 1/4- to 1-inch thick and in different directions across the panel surface to keep the cracks varied and natural looking. Produce different textures in the paste with a variety of tools such as a palette knife, a putty knife or an old credit card (figure A). Let this dry from 12-24 hours to fully crack.

2. Pour a half teaspoon of four fluid acrylic paint colors into separate compartments of an ice cube tray: Phthalo Blue (green shade), Transparent Red Iron Oxide, Phthalo Green (yellow shade) and Dioxizine Purple. Add a half-teaspoon of water to each color.

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Figure B
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Figure C
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Figure D
3. Spray the cracked surface all over with a water sprayer. By wetting the surface before applying the washes the paint will seep into the cracks rather then settling on top. Liberally apply the different colored washes to the entire cracked surface using a wide brush in varying and random patches of color. Spray the surface again with water (figure B) and blot the excess paint on the top surface of the waterscape painting with paper towels (figure C). Repeat spraying the waterscape painting surface with water and blotting the color with paper towels until the top surface is white, and the cracks are colored (figure D).

4. Blow-dry the top surface of the acrylic waterscape painting with a hair dryer to quick dry the surface. The color in the cracks will continue to seep up onto the top surface if it isn't dried.

Also in this Episode
That's Clever! : Episode HCLVR-241
•Layered Acrylic Waterscape Painting
•Silk Photo Box
•Metal Fish Sculpture
•Matchbox Keepsake Box